Your plan isn’t eligible for relief under the pilot program for any year that your plan was subject to Title I of ERISA. Instead, you may pursue penalty relief for these years through the Department of Labor’s Delinquent Filer Voluntary Compliance Program.

Program requirements

To qualify for penalty relief, you must:

Not have received a CP 283 Notice, Penalty Charged on Your 5500 Return, for the delinquent return.

File the late return plus any required schedules and attachments, using the original IRS form for that year (but use only a Form 5500-EZ for 2009 and later years even if the plan could’ve originally submitted a Form 5500-SF). Annual actuarial reports for defined benefit plans need to be prepared even if they are not required to be included with the filed return.

Write in red letters in the top margin of the first page above the title of the form “Delinquent return submitted under Rev. Proc. 2014-32, Eligible for Penalty Relief” on each late return that you submit (failure to do this may cause your late return to be ineligible for penalty relief).